Trump’s Racist Rhetoric Might Be Hurting His 2020 Re-Election Chances

on: August 20, 2019

Trump’s Racist Rhetoric Might Be Hurting His 2020 Re-Election Chances

Trump’s Racist Rhetoric Might Be Hurting His 2020 Re-Election Chances

From the day Donald Trump declared his presidential candidacy in 2015, smearing immigrants at the southern border as drug-smuggling rapists who bring “lots of problems,” appeals to bigotry have been integral to his political persona. If his recent spate of racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color are any indication, the president will again exploit racial animus and and xenophobic fearmongering to the greatest possible extent in his re-election bid.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll, however, suggests that in the current political climate, this strategy might be less useful to Trump in 2020 than it was in 2016. The poll, conducted in July, was designed to measure the racial beliefs and political engagement of voting-age adult Americans. One set of questions asked respondents if they perceive that white people and black people receive equal treatment from law enforcement officials, for example, and in public places like restaurants, hospitals, and courts. In another section, respondents were asked to place whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians on spectrums ranging from, among others, peaceful to violent and hard-working to lazy.